


It's all coming back to me now

by Bichwhwifi



Series: hiatus fics [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, OHFAT, Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-09 00:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bichwhwifi/pseuds/Bichwhwifi
Summary: Everything that can come with going to your high school reunion after twelve years of doing everything to forget about the years she spent there and what happened.





	1. Back In Starling

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic hit me like a bus Friday night. This fic is part of the Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, I'm going to make this a multi chapter fic because it's such a big idea in my head and I'm already in love with where my mind is taking this story.

It had been twelve years since she had been here, Starling city prep and after all these years she didn’t know why she even came back for this. This “reunion”, she didn’t even get a proper invite and it had to be her best friend that was dragging her along as her plus one. She knew why she didn’t get an invite just as Caitlin had, she knew all behind the who and why but still couldn’t understand that even a little thing like something that happened in high school, twelve years ago.

If her business partner hadn’t ever heard the loud call she had with Caitlin after she had gotten the news that there was going to be a reunion. She loved Ray, really she did, he was like a brother to her. They started their own company together and him trying to do something nice for her meant the world to her. But this, she didn’t want to go back there but now she didn’t have a choice anymore.

Ray had given her a week off, Caitlin was going to make sure she would meet her in Central city and make the trip to Starling together. She just wanted to stay in Ivy town, get some work done and not having to see the persons that made her time in high school a living hell. So the thought going through her head was, why was she doing this? She didn’t want to see anyone who was going to be there, she could visit Caitlin anytime, they had a company jet for god’s sake. She just needed to make up a little white lie and find a way to get Ray of her back.

 

* * *

 

 

Well her plans went into flames right before she was stepping on her plane to Central city. Caitlin bought her lie, for some reason, which was weird for her? Until she found Ray, he had to go on a last minute flight to San Diego to meet one of the investors. He told her that she could use the jet to fly to Starling after they dropped him off in San Diego. She had no choice but to say yes and that was what brought back to where she started.

It made for a very weird and quick call to Caitlin, telling her that she was last able to make it last minute. So that makes her two days early until Caitlin was able to make it. So that had led her sitting alone in her way to big hotel room, thinking how and what she was going to do to kill the time that she was here.

While she attended Staring Prep, she never really took the time to explore the city during the school year because she was willing to do everything so she could keep her scholarship, she spent most of the free time she had to study and her vacations getting a head on her schoolwork so that as soon as the school had ended she would fly back to Vegas. Starling had never been home to her, just a place that gave her the opportunity to graduate at the age of seventeen and get a full scholarship to MIT, her dream come true. As much as she felt out of place, feeling like she didn’t belong there it was where she met her best friend and for that, she was ever so great full.

After Boston and the whole thing with Cooper the FBI getting involved, she turned down all the corporate job offers that she had gotten. Merlyn Industries, Kord Industries, S.T.A.R Labs and even a personal offer to work at Queen Consolidated from the late Robert Queen himself to work in the new Applied Sciences division. She declined because she didn’t want anyone to find out what had happened at MIT and all she wanted to do was start over.

She met Ray two years later at a convention she attended to promote her own IT start up. They went out on two dates and after that, they both came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work out between the two of them and instead they started a business relationship and later a company.

From there on out everything went up hill for her. She moved to Ivy Town to be closer to Ray and where he lived so they both didn't have to travel so much and she really had enough of Boston and Vegas. So moving to the other side of the country sounded like a great idea to her and it was.

Just every cell in her body didn’t want to be here, there was nothing on the TV, she literally didn’t have any thing left to watch on her Netflix, even that was a big accomplishment for her and last but not least, that meant that the only idea she had left was going out side. Even that idea had a flaw, she didn’t know a single thing to do in the city. So after texting Caitlin, asking for some tips on what to do, here she was walking around the city while looking at the map of the city on her phone because getting lost was the last thing that she wanted to happen at this point.

During her dinner, she came to the conclusion that nobody in the city she went to school with wouldn’t even recognize her if they saw her walking down the street. It wasn’t until after she got the new of Cooper's death that she ditched the contacts and dyed her hair blond and that made her look like a whole different person. Her dinner was nice, table salt was everything she had heard it would be, the dessert, it was like having a piece of heaven in your mouth.

“Miss Smoak?”

“Miss Queen, Mr. Steele, it’s nice to see you two again.” She said looking up after putting down her spoon on her empty plate and seeing who was standing next to her table. She was shocked to see them standing next to her table and even more shocked that they knew who she was, let alone remember her name.

“How long had it been, nine, eight years?” Walter asked her while she was still processing the fact that all of this was happening.

“Yeah, something like that. Twelve years since I’ve been in Starling, a lot has changed around here.” She said slowly reminding herself that all of this wasn’t a dream.

“So have you, Miss Smoak, you’ve grown into a remarkable woman. Robert was devastated after you declined the job offer he went on about it for months.” Moira said while placing her hand on Felicity’s and almost having a look of admiration on her face.

“Oh, I feel so bad and thank you for remarking that.” She said placing her other hand on her heart.

“Would you like to join us for coffee, we would love to hear what you’ve been up to since we last saw you,” Walter asked her shortly after she had spoken, she had literally no excuses prepared and lying on the spot wasn’t really her strong suit and Walter’s English accent was something she couldn’t say no to.

“Sure, why not. Let me get the bill and I’ll come by.” She said grabbing for her purse and gave a small nod to one of the waiters asking for the bill.

“No, let us get the bill. I know this great coffee place just a few block down the road, Thea takes me there all the time.” Moira said while she saw Walter talking to the waiter.

“I can’t let you guys do that.” She said again while putting on her coat.

“Before you say anything more consider it already done, did you drove herself or did you take a cab here?” Moira asked her before putting her hand on her shoulder and looking at her like her mother did every time she came to visit.

“A cab? I really can’t let you guys do that for me.”

“Don’t be, we have a car out side. Just let us do this, we would do everything for what you did for our family.” Moira while they walked through the restaurant to get to the exit and saw a black town car parked right in front of the restaurant.

 

* * *

 

During coffee with Moira and Walter, she came to learn a lot about what had happened in Starling over the last twelve years. Thea started her own businesses while Oliver on the hand, she got the news that Oliver had dropped out of four colleges. That was the thing that made her go silent for some time. She had done everything in her power to get him to graduate high school and when she left Starling and went back to Vegas that he had changed his ways but he didn’t.

“Felicity? Are you alright? You zoned out for a bit.” Moira asked her after she had sat her cup back in the table.

“Yeah, I’m good. Some things never change.” Felicity said looking back up from her lap.

“So you’re in town for the reunion, right? Tommy told me that Laurel was working hard on getting everyone back together again.” She asked her.

“Yeah, Caitlin made me come as her plus one after she showed me her invite and I told her that I didn’t get one or that mine was lost in the mail.” She said a bit rushed before picking up her coffee cup and stalling time it took her to drink the last sip of coffee that was still in the cup.

“Really?” Moira said with the look on her face that was telling her that she didn’t believe a single word she just said. She just didn’t want to open that can of worm ever again it was the reason she didn’t want to come In the first place and she knew that Moira Queen knew exactly what was going on.

“Must have been the last one, I moved quite a lot in the last few years took me a while to find a place.” She said after she had put down her now empty cup on the table in front of her.

“So how is working with Mister Palmer, still going strong?” Walter spoke after there had been an awkward silence between her and Moira.

“Yeah, he’s in San Diego right now meeting with one of the investors about one of the new projects we’re working on.” She said after blinking a few times and shaking her head just a little bit just.

“Oh, Walter. We need to get going, Thea said she needed to show us something before she needs to get on her plane to New York.”

“Yeah, I need to get back to my hotel. I”m starting to feel my jet lag coming.“ She said grabbing at her head after taking off her glasses before putting them back on and getting up.

“It was really nice to see you two, tell Thea I said hey.” She said before putting on her coat and making her way out the door and waving them goodbye.

The part of her thinking that people here wouldn’t recognize her, she was now slapping herself in the face for what just happened. She had forgotten that there were actually people outside of Starling prep that had seen her face and know her name. It was just past eleven pm when she made it back to her hotel room and once again she was hungry again after the small portions that had been served at Table salt. So room serves and movies it was.

 

* * *

 

“Thea, mom, Walter? You guy’s still home?” Oliver yelled when he opened the front door and walking into the entrance hall.

“Oliver, we didn’t know that you would be coming in tonight?” He heard Walter speak from the living room.

“I got the chance to get on an earlier flight home, so I took it.” He said walking into the living room to see his mother sitting next to Walter and his sister sitting across of them.

“You wouldn’t believe me who we just ran into after dinner.” His mother began talking and he could see the smile on her face but he couldn’t tell just why most of the time his mother said that it meant that she saw someone that she hated.

“Felicity Smoak, can you believe that? Walter and mom said that she hadn’t been in Starling since she graduated, that’s like…” Thea said even before his mother and Walter could even speak.

“Twelve years ago, I know Speedy,“ Oliver said before his sister could finish her sentence. ”If you guys don’t mind I’m going to bed, Gotham isn’t really that close to home,“ Oliver said hurried after he had thought everything through for the second time. He knew that he was probably the reason why she never came back to Starling.

“We’ll see you tomorrow morning at brunch, honey. Get some sleep, you look tired.” His mother said with an understanding smile on her face.

“See you tomorrow.” He waved them goodbye and made his way upstairs to his room with his luggage in hand.

He knew for sure that he at least played a part in the reason she hadn’t come back to Starling in all those years, the reason why she didn’t take the job offer his father had given her after she finished at MIT and he knew it. After all these years the news that she was now working with Ray Palmer it was like a kick in the gut. Behind Max Fuller, there was one guy that he hated more and that was Ray Palmer, that stupid billionaire smart ass, only with a higher IQ than Fuller but just as arrogant.

 

* * *

 

“Caitlin, why the hell are you calling me at…” She said trying to look for a near by clock while trying to ignore the fact that her head was pounding and every sound made it even worse. “One in the after noon, oh god. What in the world did I do?” She asked herself more than Caitlin actually.

“What the hell is going on Felicity.” She heard Caitlin ask.

“I may or may not have run into someone while I was enjoying my dinner at Table salt and then had coffee with them.” She said after lying back down on her bed and putting her phone on speaker.

“Was it Oliver, Tommy please don’t tell me you ran into Laurel. I am on my way to Starling right now, you know that right now, my train gets to Starling in around four hours.” She said hurried after going silent for a while.

“No, it was his mother and his step father,” Felicity answered with a sight.

“Oh, that is even worse than running into Laurel Lance. I now get the fact that you have a hangover right now.” She could hear Caitlin say in shock.

“Yeah, they saw me, paid for my food and then invited me to have coffee with them and when Moira Queen asks you to join her for coffee, you go and to get coffee with her.” She so what yelled back before putting a pillow over her head to muffle the scream.

“I get that, I really do. So take some Advil, get in the shower and get dressed. I’ll see you at the station at four and we’ll talk about all of it during dinner.” Caitlin said in her raised voice.

“I will. See you at the train station.” She said after taking a deep breath, sitting up and putting her phone off speaker and held it to her ear.

“See you later, Liss.” She said before the call ended and fall back into the bed.


	2. Disconnected

“Well, good morning to you. Did you even sleep last night?” Thea asked him after she eyed him head to toes as he walked into the kitchen.

 

“I did but not much. A lot on my mind, work and all.” He said giving her a dirty look before sitting down in front of his sister at the breakfast bar and placing his head in his hands.

“Really, work’s the thing that you blame for looking like a zombie after you what, slept like eleven hours. We both know it’s Felicity Smoak, what happened between the two of you?” She asked him while he was getting himself something to eat and a cup of coffee.

“Nothing that’s any of your business.” He said while making eye contact with his sister.

“Okay, okay. I’ll let it go. Mom said looks totally different, dyed her hair blond, she got glasses and after all of what she told me, I googled her and she looks hot, smoking hot. See what I did there.” She said while smiling like a fool and giving him a wink and a friendly push to the shoulder.

“You already knew! Didn’t you? Oh, this just got so much better.” He didn’t know what to say to his sister but he knew that the lack of surprise on his face was all that his sister needed to know to figure it out.

“Why are you still here, didn’t you have to be in New York?” He asked her not looking up from his plait.

“I was supposed to go but then mom told me Felicity was in town and also the company I was supposed to meet with, they blew the deal we had. So I didn’t go.” He heard his sister ramble on, not listening only having asked the question to change the subject.

“Okay, I get the reason that you didn’t go for business reasons but nothing happened between me and Felicity.” He said after putting down his knife and fork and looking his sister in the eyes.

“You, my brother, are a terrible lair.” She said while taking a strawberry from his plait and walking to  his side of the bar before she continued talking. “Everybody knew, mom knew, dad knew, everybody knew and we both know that’s part of the reason dad got so upset after she declined his personal job offer, dad never did something like that.” She said while trowing her arm’s around his neck.

“I know about all that. Dad asked me to go to her graduation and ask her right then and there after that plan failed, dad and I got into a big fight because I wouldn’t tell him what happened between the two of us. And what did happened, that stays between me and her. That’s all I’m going to tell you.” He said while getting out of his sisters grip and make his way to the sink to put away his dirty dishes.

“Well, tomorrow night you have the chance to talk to her. Set everything straight gets everything over with.” He heard his sister getting frustrated with him.

“Keep dreaming, because that is never going to happen. Ever!” He said just before walking out of the kitchen and making his way back to his room, he really needed a shower.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey, Liss. I haven’t seen you in months.” Caitlin said as soon as they saw each other on the train platform.

“Five months, to be exact,” Felicity said while embracing her friend in a hug.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Caitlin said after stepping and picking up her suitcase before they made their way to the exit to get a cab back to the city.

“I have. My past is coming to haunt me, I should have never come back here.” She said while shaking her head before looking back at her best friend.

“No, drinks for you during dinner, girl.” Her best friend said while wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, than you.” She said while pointing to her friend.

“Are going to have a heard time keeping a distance between me and the bottle wine. And you know that is going to be a difficult thing to do, do you remember the last time that happened?” She said following up her last statement before they hailed a cab.

“I do and we said that we’d never talk about that again,” Caitlin said while putting her suitcase in the trunk of the cab with a little help from the cab driver.

“And we aren’t if you don’t get between me and my wine,” Felicity said before they got into the cab.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“So, Moira was the one that recognized you?” Caitlin asked her before taking a sip of her glass of red wine.

“Yeah, I don’t know how. Not getting recognized was the whole part of me dying my hair and ditching the contacts. I zoned out after Walter started talking about the head of Applied Sciences was leaving and they were looking for a new one.” Felicity rambled on after she had one glass of wine and half a plait smoked salmon.

“Do you think they were going to ask you?” She asked after having taken a bite of pasta.

“Yeah, it’s not every day that Robert Queen wants to personally hire you straight out of MIT and was almost begging me to take the job. Not forgetting to mention that he sent his own son; Oliver, Damn, Queen to my graduation to ask me again after I turned down his fathers offer.” She said before gulping down the rest of her second glass of wine.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Felicity!” Caitlin whisper yelled at her from the other side of the table.

“Because I didn’t want to talk about it at the time and you know why. After I saw Oliver that day, I ran. He cough up to me and he made me tell him why I ran off like I did the day of our high school graduation. I said that if I hadn’t I would have missed my flight home and after that I pushed him in the face and ran off again.”Felicity whispered back as soon as Caitlin was done talking before placing her head in her hands and taking a deep sight.

“You go, girl. You should have told me all of this, like yesterday and I wouldn’t have made you come here, if you don’t want to go anymore I totally get that.” Caitlin said while taking one of Felicity’s hands in her’s.

“Well, that is not going to happen, because I told Moira to say ‘hey’ to Thea and if Thea was home she is sure to mention it to Oliver that I’m in town and that means that he knows I’m in town,” Felicity said tilting her head back up and looking Caitlin in the eyes.

“You told me Thea was supposed to fly to New York last night?” Caitlin asked her with a confused look o her face.

“Yes, she was but after all of that happened and I got drunk and…” She said while breaking eye contact with Caitlin and king around the restaurant.

“Felicity, don’t tell me you hacked her computer?” Caitlin asked her while tugging at Felicity’s hand to get her attention back. “God, Felicity!” She said throwing her hands in the air before folding her arm and looking Felicity in the eyes while shaking her head in despair

“Sorry but I saw that she canceled her flight late last night so she’s still in town. Just as Oliver flew in from Gotham last night, so I came to the conclusion that Thea told Oliver. So the only way out for me is dying or getting into an car accident on the way to the reunion, to get out of this mess.” She said before holding up her glass for a toast.

“You make a good point, Thea does love to talk,” Caitlin said while clinking their classes together.

“We’ll get through this, figure something out, together.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Speedy!” Thea heard coming from the front door.

“Don’t call me that! Asshole.” Thea yelled back while making her way to the stairs.

“You love me.” Came back in response.

“Sadly, I do Tommy. Sadly, I do.” She said after she made it down the stairs.

“You came to see Oliver, right?” She said tilting her head a bit. “Well, I think that he went back to bed after I talked to him this morning. He looked like a damn zombie and he didn’t even go out last night.” She said getting a bit annoyed at her brother's actions

“Bad or real bad?” Tommy asked while having folded his arms.

“Even worse than eight years ago. I tried to talk to his but he wouldn’t listen to me so he’s all your’s to fix. Good luck with that.” Thea said before giving him a pat on the shoulder and walking off.

“Here go’s nothing,” Tommy said to himself while making his way up stairs to Oliver’s room.

“Man, I know you’re in there. Thea told me, so get your sorry ass out there.” He said banning on Oliver’s door.

“I’m coming, man. I’m coming.” Tommy heard his friend muffled voice come from the other side of the door.

“Man, when your sister said you looked like bad she wasn’t kidding,” Tommy said jokingly.

“She’s also your sister, Tommy. So get your ass in a side.” Oliver said hurried before closing the door behind Tommy after he walked in.

“So are you finally going to tell me what the hell happened between you and Felicity Smoak.” He almost yelled before sitting down on the bed.

“How do you even know that?” Oliver asked while leaning against the door.

“My fiance is the one organizing tomorrow’s reunion. I know that Laurel didn’t send Felicity her invite. And I was the one that called Caitlin Snow telling her just that.” Tommy said getting off the bed and making his way over to Oliver.

“And what point are you trying to make with that?” He said sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk and folding his arms.

“She just called me that she is on her way to Starling and she told me that she was just on the phone with a hungover Felicity Smoak who got drunk on the mini bar in her hotel room after she ran into your mother,” Tommy said before flopping down in the chair in front of him.

“I already know that she’s in town, so what are you trying to say here, Tommy?” Oliver huffed out.

“That this is your chance to fix everything, tell her your side of the story. This back and forth between the two of you have been going on for the way to long.” He said bending over a bit and placing his elbows on is knees.

“Well, do you remember how that ended last time. She punched me in the face, she punched me Tommy, my face hurt for days. I say that that is something someone that doesn’t want to talk about it, does it?” Oliver said looking his best friend in the eye.

“Man I totally get that but that was like what, eight years ago?”

“Yeah, eight years ago and that means that in all those years we could have met up and talked it out but we didn’t,”  Oliver said standing up and making his way to the door and opening.

“Because the both of you are as stupid as stupid gets. Just talk to her tomorrow, please? For me?”Tommy said while standing up and following his friend to the door.

“Get out, Tommy. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said pushing his friend out the door.

There was a part of him that wanted to make up with Felicity, he wanted her to get the chance to tell her his part of the story. When he went to her graduation he said yes even before his father asked him to go.

The moment he locked eyes with her and she ran off, he knew that she was still mad at him and he under stood that. So he followed her on a foot chase and corned her and he knew that the punch to the face was what he deserved it at the time but the fact that she didn’t even give him the chance to explain himself.

The feeling was killing him, he wanted to tell her about the ring she found. He wanted to tell her that Laurel was out of the picture, that he wanted to start fresh with her. That she was the reason she he actually did something in school during the time she attended Starling Prep, he never really needed the tutor sessions. He liked having her around and the plus was that his mom and dad were so what in love with her already.

Talking to Felicity, getting everything off his chest and trying to make it right again, it was just something that he wanted to take his time with and not rush it by doing it in one night at a high school reunion.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“So what dress are you going to wear tonight?” Caitlin asked her from her bad after she walked back into the room.

“The black dress you told me to buy two years ago? Never wore it and didn’t want to go shopping,” She said with out looking in her friend's direction.

“The one with the cut-outs?” She heads Caitlin ask while she was going through her suit case looking for her shoes and make-up bag.

“Yeah, why are you asking?” She asked after having turned around.

“That dress is the perfect dress that’s going to say ‘Suck it’ to Laurel for not inviting you,” Caitlin said before sitting up straight and looking right at Felicity.

“That’s not the reason I picked the dress. Like I told you less than the minute ago, I picked the dress because I didn’t know what other dress to pick. So drop it.” Felicity said while looking her friend right in the eye.

“Okay, I get that. So, can you please tell me again why you and Laurel hate each other’s gut?” She said while sitting up a little straighter and folding her legs over one an other and waiting for Felicity to start taking again.

“Really, Cait. This again.” She said in a sight.

“What, I like the story. So much juicy high school drama!” Caitlin said with a big smile pattered on her face while winking at her friend and clapping her hands together.

“I’m giving you the short and simple version. I found prescription drugs that didn’t have my name on them in my locker, the principle happened to have gotten an anonymous tip from someone, caught, Laurel Lance. They weren’t mine and for some reason, Tommy took the blame never knew why the only thing I could come up with was because I tutored him but he already thanked me for telling me about the take over his dad was planning. Still listening?” She looked her friend in the eye.

“Yeah, go on. I’m still listening.” Caitlin said while getting up from the bed and walking into the bathroom with her dress in hand before locking the door.

“After all of that went down and I hacked into the school's surveillance, I found out that Laurel was the one that some how manged get into my locked and planted them. So that is reason one that I hate Laurel the second reason is that she is the jealous bitch and not understanding the meaning of the word ‘no’ after being told that same word over and over again.” Felicity said while leaning against the door.

“So why were you mad at Oliver again?” Caitlin said while peeking her head outside the door before walking out the bathroom her self.

“Really Caitlin?” She said while zipping up Caitlin’s dress after Caitlin turned her back to her and she knew what to do before even having to ask.

“What! You told me once. A decade ago, Felicity. You can’t blame a girl for forgetting.” Caitlin said while searching the room and after having found Felicity’s dress placing it in her arms and pushing her into the bathroom.

“I’m still mad at him because he didn’t even defend me after Laurel accused me of sleeping with him, right in front of him. He just stood there smiling, like the little prick he is. And some other thing I didn’t tell you about ten years ago and I’m not going to tell you now. So just drop it.” Felicity said from in side the bathroom.

“No, Felicity! I’m not letting this go! Just tell me.” She heard her friend say though the door that was between the too of them.

“Okay, Okay. I found an engagement ring in his bedroom when I came to pick up my books the day before graduation. You happy now? I couldn’t even look at the guys face after I found that stupid ring, he lied to me, straight to my face.” She said falling back on the bed, hands in her hair while Caitlin threw her heels at her.

“You make a soiled case and I’m not going to make tell me anything more. Do you still want to go?” She said while she made her way to the door and leaning against the door until Felicity got off the bed.

“Yeah, I still want to see what happened to the Lance sisters after all those years,” Felicity said while getting off the bed and walking to her friend with a small smile on her face while her friend zipped up her dress.

“So let’s go then,” Caitlin said before linking arms and they walked out the door.


End file.
